.
Matt axed us to compare his quick-sums to those of Dutton. And Dr. D is quot-a-fied. Harmonic convergence at its best.
The first line below is SABRMatt's take. The fact that Matty might have been asked to provide these bumper stickers to the Steinbrenners, that keeps this fly ball definitely inside the foul pole.
I love these kindsa bumper stickers, by the way. Remember when USA Today's preseason roto magazine used to do them, post-draft, for everybody in the bigs? Like in FOUR words.
The infield:
.......
C MIKE ZUNINO - Would see AAA time in 2015 if not for defensive game - concerned for major regression due to bad contact.
TNT: Solid defensively, lots of offensive tools but lots of holes
Dr. D: I'll take the beat writer on this one :- )
........
C JESUS SUCRE - Will lose back-up gig to Hicks by mid-season - Brendan Ryan minus walks at the plate.
TNT: Solid catch-and-throw option if no upgrade available
Dr. D: Draw. I think the M's love Sucre. I certainly like him. Says here his bat is being dis'sed a little.
.........
C BRANDON HICKS - Solid approach at plate and behind it - high stop-loss, minimal upside
TNT: (Hicks isn't on the 40-man. Quintero is. Dr. D shoulda clarified this point.)
Dr. D: Are we talking about John Hicks, the lower-minors catcher who is playing well in the winter? Let's give a charitable scoreboard pass on this one ;- )
.........
1B LOGAN MORRISON - Confidence, already a strength, increased in the crunch, comparable to young Lyle Overbay
TNT: Strong finish positions him for duty next year at 1B/DH
Dr. D: You see how tough these bumper stickers are to do well. I love Dutton's 5-yards-away view that Morrison is essentially trying to establish himself as a starter.
The Overbay comp is very interesting from Matty, as is the reference to makeup (which often decides a player's destiny). Weighing this one up .... both are good bumper stickers. I kinda got a little more out of Dutton again. 2-0.
Hang in there amigo :- )
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1B/LF PATRICK KIVLEHAN - Late arrival to baseball, ceiling not yet established, needs to improve strike zone control - LoMo blocks him in 2015
TNT: (Kivlehan's not on the 40-man. The discussion at hand was, what moves are forced in the near future.)
Dr D: All Matty's stuff is as sound as a dollar. Totally publishable bumper sticker, as is. We'd have to consolidate the first two phrases to make it fit onto the head of a pin, maybe.
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2B ROBINSON CANO - Probably never going to hit 30 HR for Mariners, but who cares, really?
TNT: Second baseman is one of the game's premier players
Dr. D: I'm gingerly moving the score to 2-1.
..............
3B KYLE SEAGER - Franchise hero in oh so many ways - defensive value likely a bit overstated in 2014
TNT: Only question is when the M's get a long-term deal done
Dr. D: Not a thing wrong with SABRMatt's take, but the snippet of back-channel gossip moves Dutton ahead of all of us. Score 3-1.
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SS CHRIS TAYLOR - Equals Erick Aybar
TNT: Projects as the starting SS after fine rookie debut
Dr. D: Nice. Scoreboard goes to 3-2. Strictly in terms of Dr. D's enjoyment, obviously.
Aybar's career slash line is .280/.320/.380 with 20-30 SB's. That'll do for us too. Aybar is given credit for +10 runs a year defensively ... is that what you're predicting, Matt? If so, you get 3.5 to 4.0 (soft) WAR rather than 2.5 to 3.0 from Taylor.
Fangraphs gives Aybar credit for $22.5M last year in bases gained and bases lost.
.................
SS BRAD MILLER - Much more dynamic than Taylor offensively, but Taylor the superior SS and the less likely to implode. If he can supersub, he can play.
TNT: Bat has pop, but position change likely to OF or 1B
Dr. D: We said, bumper stickers. Not Lookout Landing comments. 4-2. Grrrrrr.
.................
UT WILLIE BLOOMQUIST - This should be his final season, if he's smart - skills eroding despite high BABIP in 2014
TNT: True utilityman who fits well on projected roster
Dr. D: Wow. I hadn't noticed how badly that his EYE had fallen off the cliff. That's harsh, man. Even in short at-bats, the EYE was a catastrophe from that type of player. In the mind's eye also, now you remember the overmatched AB's.
A solid rally into a 4-3 score.
.................
A takeaway here ... an info download of this type might give a feel for predicting the 2015 squad. I could see the M's writing off Bloomquist's money at this point, actually.
To put Taylor at starting SS, and let Miller eeeaaaaase on into his MLB Logo den-sity, that is looking more and more fun -- if Miller's growing pains aren't swapped into a corner that should be manned by an RBI man. As a #10 hitter then the Zobrist-with-hiccups idea is one thing.
Remember, the M's shed John Buck for (apparently) no reason other than they thought Jesus Sucre (slugging like .550 at Tacoma was it?) was a really cool young player. Now the question is, does Zunino play any fewer than 131 games.
................
Should we go with the OF and SP and RP posts? Or anybody else want to take a shot at the bumper stickers?
Cheers,
Dr. D
I think he'll be on the 40-man very soon, don't know why I said Brandon (gah!). He's on my list (as is Kivlehan) because I believe they will both see playing time in 2015. Quintero might, as well, but no real utility there.
...probably won't be worth 10 runs i 2015 defensively, but will in his prime.
...it wasn't EXACTLY this...but I was, at one point, asked to exec summarize possible "value players" in free agency...one line in an excel sheet per player with a "notes" column to explain why the guy was on your list. :)
at just how succinct he can be. With one sentence he can convey one of my best paragraphs' worth of ideas, and obviously his is much more elegant and enjoyable to digest.
My takeaways from this exercise were two-fold: first, that it's REALLY hard to skinny a player projection into 10 words. Second, that Matt's pretty good at this kinda thing.
Defense generally peaks early. Guys just get slower as they get older, smarts can make up for some of that but it seems to me that expecting him to improve defensively over the next few years is a bad bet.
Jesus Sucre. It'll take a miracle.
John Hicks: Hopes he sticks.
Logan Morrison: Would not be the first guy on first to fail.
Patrick Kivlehan: Running right route to right field.
Robby Cano: Paying dividends so far.
Chris Taylor: Makes marvellous moves, maybe more.
Brad Miller: The end of Zobrist envy.
Willie Bloomquist: The end of old Mariner recycling?
Maybe you want to do that for this winter's class? Just for the ooh's and aah's?
V-Mart: HR/K RATIO TRUMPS AGE ISSUE
... which is actually an article I did once for the Ranger. Except at 50 words per amendment. What we wouldn't give to have TJ's summary of the value of each, in 6-8 words.
Apparently the M's will no longer need the recycling moves they have employed over the last year or 30.
Enjoyed it Maq. Now, there is a guy who set himself a real bumper-sticker time limit. :: standing O ::
... given the Kivlehan and Taylor slogans, I'd 'a thought you could do them all with alliteration, or in Haiku form, or something :- )
This is too much fun.
Billy Beane: His (stuff) still doesn't work in the playoffs.
Derek Norris: Haircut and shave may improve peripheral vision for ball blocking.
Sonny Gray: 80 Curveball, plus command, plus makeup. Still not old enough to shave.
Sam Fuld/Craig Gentry/Coco Crisp: Despite outward appearances, these are all the same guy.
Sean Doolittle: His peripherals get better as his beard gets gnarlier.
Brandon Moss: Don't lean on him as a franchise cornerstone.
Josh Donaldson: A franchise player, by Orc standards.
Jed Lowrie: Chris Carter would have been really handy this year.
Eric Sogard/Nick Punto/Alberto Callaspo: Redundancy only works if the redundant players are good.
HEH!